A Flag for Juneteenth
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Expert quilter Kim Taylor shares a unique and powerful story of the celebration of the first Juneteenth, from the perspective of a young girl.
On June 19, 1865, in Galveston, General Gordon Granger of the Union Army delivered the message that African Americans in Texas were free. Since then, Juneteenth, as the day has come to be known, has steadily gained recognition throughout the United States. ln 2020,a powerful wave of protests and demonstrations calling for racial justice and equality brought new awareness to the significance of the holiday.
A Flag for Juneteenth depicts a close-knit community of enslaved African Americans on a plantation in Texas, the day before the announcement is to be made that all enslaved people are free. Young Huldah, who is preparing to celebrate her tenth birthday, can’t possibly anticipate how much her life will change that Juneteenth morning. The story follows Huldah and her community as they process the news of their freedom and celebrate together by creating a community freedom flag.
Debut author and artist Kim Taylor sets this story apart by applying her skills as an expert quilter. Each of the illustrations has been lovingly hand sewn and quilted, giving the book a homespun, tactile quality that is altogether unique.
A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Basing this moving debut on a Juneteenth story quilt that she created, Taylor depicts the events of the first Juneteenth from the perspective of Huldah, an African American child whose 10th birthday is on June 19, 1865. Quilted images that employ myriad patterns and textures tell the story alongside lines that focus on reactions of formerly enslaved individuals in Texas. Following the announcement, women quilt freedom flags, children gather branches to make flagpoles, men carve designs into the wood, and Huldah climbs her favorite tree to capture sunlight in a jar. In a turn of events that melds the child's birthday with the greater celebration, the community gives Huldah a hand-sewn freedom flag, to which she adds a star for freedom and the sunbeam for guidance. It's a discussion-starting, personal-feeling portrait of a communal celebration. An author's note concludes. Ages 4–8.
